When All Else Fails
by Baird Crevan
Summary: Starscream comes up with a brilliant plan to help him take down Megatron: a disease that he and Skyfire discovered and imprisoned long ago.  But Starscream doesn't know when to say he's in over his head.  Slash.  Starscream x Skyfire x Oc
1. Chapter 1

A/N: All right friends, one last thing to throw at you. This is based off an idea I had a while ago about something from Starscream's and Skyfire's past popping up to invade their new lives. It's G1, and hopefully funny, a little raunchy, scary and all get out. I resist labels!

I know vampires are kind of old hat now, but if you can get past any prejudice, I might surprise you. This will become Starscream x Skyfire x Oc eventually, but it's mostly about the seeker. And it could become M later. I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any questions, please let me know. Please read and review!

* * *

"Is the seal secure?"

"Yes, for the fourth time, it is secure. Nothing is going to break that door."

The explorers heard a deep, faint groan, and they exchanged nervous glances.

"Maybe I'll check it again."

Skyfire stopped welding the console and got up, ambling over to the corridor. Starscream followed behind his fellow explorer to check the door as well. They had only been traveling for a few megacycles when they had been lured to a planet that was giving off anomalous readings. Skyfire bent down by the door, doing a diagnostic of the door seal while the nervous seeker looked over his shoulder. The scans beeped in response, indicating there was a complete vacuum.

The shuttle then turned his head around to look at his partner. "I'm still not sure we are doing the right thing. Why don't we just go to Cybertronian command and let _them_ deal with it?"

"Skyfire, we go back, we're never going to be able on this mission again. Do you want to go through all that lobbying to get an approved trip, _again_?"

Skyfire looked crestfallen. "But Starscream, he's a sentient being-"

The red and white seeker shook his head. "_It_ only has one thing in mind. Even its very cells are hostile to our programming... And since we can't kill him, this is our only option."

Skyfire looked horrified. "_Kill_ him? What do you mean? You mean... you didn't try, did you?"

Starscream glowered back. "It was self-defense. And I was trying to protect you, not like you were any help. Our E.M.P. bursts have no real affect, and its cells regenerate if they are destroyed by anything other than ultra-violet rays. I'm not going to _murder_ him, but we can't let him loose, either. It'd be tantamount to murdering our own planet."

Skyfire still wasn't convinced. "Maybe we could reason with him-"

He was cut off by a clashing knock at the door. The door pinged, showing that it was completely solid despite the deafening crashes at the door.

Skyfire backed away slowly, and bumped into the seeker who nearly jumped out of his frame. Their optics were trained on the door, praying to Primus that it held.

"Guess my null-ray wore off."

Then there was a scratching, and a high-pitched wail that sounded so otherworldly that both of them threw their hands over their audios. The screech carried through the door and reverberated down the corridor, bouncing off the console room and returning back to them on the other side. The shuttle and seeker shuddered.

"Let's go," Skyfire mouthed. Starscream nodded, and they left the facility alone for millions of years.

* * *

Starscream scowled as he walked across the sandy plain. It would have been so much easier to fly to the ruins, but it just _had_ to happen that there was a sandstorm brewing just beyond the ridge. He knew from experience that even fine granules of silicone _slagging_ _hurt_ when they got in your joints. It was like trying to move your arm, but there were microscopic needles poking the nerves in you shoulder and elbow. As they scraped the inside of your nerves, you were dimly aware of the pain coursing through that side of your body but you were more focused on your screaming vocalizer. The best way to avoid it was transforming before the flying sands blew and hoping that all of the baffles and sealers were in operation.

What brought him to this sandy planet was not curiosity or pleasure. Those two often went hand in hand for the scientist Cybertronian, but these days he was more often doing anything but science, and therefore not any pleasantness that went with his former profession. Megatron was not good with utilizing his resources. And even when he did, he always used them...incorrectly.

He frowned. Megatron is what was forcing him into this anyway. It was slagging Megatron that had put him on another "exile asteroid," and basically said, _"Good luck getting back, moron. You might have trouble because I took out your navigational positioning with that last punch to the helm, but that is why I'm such a sadistic tyrant_." In reality, Megatron had said, "Imbecile." And left.

Granted, it had been just a typical day in the Decepticon ranks, including the standard infighting and a suspiciously placed mine tile in Megatron's path set only to detonate when Megatron's exact weight pressed on it as he walked by. Who knew that a carousing bunch of cassettes, when combined together in a conglomerate of punches and yelling, weighed the same as Megatron? They set off the tile, blowing up a decent fifth of the base, but somehow managing to survive the blast. Starscream had pulled up in the throne room and had gone and started his victory speech about their _dearly_ departed commander.

Until a fusion cannon blast ripped through his right wing. The said gunformer was right behind him.

So Starscream had sat there on the asteroid for orns tying to figure out which way Earth was and how he should go about getting there. He started by repairing his wing- a shoddy job to be certain, considering he couldn't work on his _own_ back. Still, he was functional if not a little peeved that his pristine coat of paint was marred by his own repair attempt. He flexed his wing joints appraisingly. When he didn't gasp for pain he figured it would have to do.

Next: navigation. Unfortunately for Megatron, Starscream always knew where he was because of a detailed map of the galaxy that he had helped compile. Years of exploring had to be good for something. In fact, he doubted there was a Cybertronian map that didn't have his or the shuttle's name on it. So, whether on purpose or not, taking out Starscream's positioning array might not have had the desired effect of leaving the seeker stranded for long. He looked to the stars and counted them, looking up their arrangement to his internal databanks to find out where the Pit he was.

His red optics narrowed. There was an oddly familiar binary system very close to his position. In essence, two blue giants had formed rather close to one another and were now locked in a deadly dance, spinning around one another at a slow and fixed pace. They both were exerting the same amount of internal pull and so pulled on one another to continue the dance for eons. Eventually, the spin would be thrown off balance by something, and one of them would crash into the other.

He smiled. Even he, terror of the skies, was not immune to a perfectly drawn metaphor. He tilted his helm and imagined that one of stars had a reddish tint and the other was a duller gray. Now all he had to do was somehow cause one to fall into the other... and only one would survive, cannibalizing its neighbor.

It was then that his smile faded. That binary system had been discovered by he and that shuttle millions of years ago. That means that he was on the path that he and Skyfire had traveled. That also meant he knew exactly where he was.

He stopped for moment when an idea hit him. If he was on the path, then that means he was close to _that_. Oh...how _perfect_.

Cue his transformation and flying off in the direction of a small orange-red planet near the binary.

And so he continued to skulk on the sandy plain, furtively looking back at the looming storm that threatened to do wonders to his paint. But he was already here and he had a plan that would certainly surprise Megatron.

In the past, Starscream had always taken a more solo approach to defeating Megatron, with the occasional help that he created. He had tried to manipulate the Autobots, aliens, humans and other beings to no success of helping him to his goal of a lifeless gray Decepticon general. So for the last few attempts, he had tried inventions meant to take Megatron's spark that held no pretentious aspirations other than their main objective. He had cut down on the frivolous excess.

The result had been less fun, and less successful. Plus, Megatron mocked him for his change in tactics _relentlessly_ so it only made the aftermath harder to bear. Overly complex and agonizingly simple produced the same effect. Fusion cannon. Repair. Laughing stock. Bristled and pissed seeker.

But not again. _No_. This time, _this slagging_ time would be different. He was going to get help.

He came to a huge boulder that was worn from thousands of years of sand erosion, but still was three times the size of the _Nemesis_. Huge maybe didn't cover it. Maybe mammoth, but Starscream was not a fan of using Earth terms, even if the derivative of the word did predate the sentient humans he had come to despise. This boulder was one of three or four partially covered behemoths (a better term... maybe) that stood hackneyed and akimbo of one another arranged in a seemingly random fashion.

But boulders _arranged_ randomly? It was not the fragging _sand_ that had placed them here. In fact, the rocks formed the Cybtertronian symbol for _disease_.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Managed to find some quick time to post while in Chicago. Even though I'm here for a wedding... I got to see some of the filming for Transformers 3 in Millennium Park! Apparently, the next installment features Chicago predominantly, and I had no frickin' idea. Just some explosions and a taxicab "getting it" (exploding), with some black Decepticon SUVs. No actors, though I've heard Shia's been tearing up the nightlife all summer here. And it's not like I'm bar hopping or anything to get a glimpse. ;)

BUUUUT. The update. I'll be upping regularly now every Wednesday, since this one is mostly finished. Please read and review!

* * *

The huge rock blocked most of the harsh suns, but the seeker was still irritated by the heat. Starscream felt along the sandstone for the groove that he hoped to Primus was still there. It was possible that the sand had worn it away, and if that was the case, he was going to be groping the rock for a long time.

Finally, he found what he had been looking for. A small groove, about the size of his servo waited patiently for him in the shadow of the rock. He noticed a second groove next to his that was a little bit bigger. Meant for the hand of a shuttle. He glared at it and thrust his servo into _his_ groove.

The whole rock thrummed harmonically, recognizing one of its masters had returned after so _very_ long. Then, a relatively small opening emerged about twenty feet from where he was. Really, only a few steps away for him. He leaned away from the rock, smiling gleefully that his creation still worked. _This_ is why the Cybertronians should rule the universe. The staggering ability of their technology to endure.

The fake rock door hissed as the inside depressurized. Zillions of grains of sand flowed out from between the cracks and stubbornly into the now open doorway. For millenia, sand had attempted to breach the inner realm of this underground facility all in vain. Now it greedily flowed into the dark room. Starscream covered the doorway with his frame, realizing it hadn't changed much from the last time he was here. He quickly closed the door behind him with a click of a keypad, feeling the winds picking up and bringing with them the detrimental pieces of sand. It never ceased to amaze him how _small_ things were off of Cybertron.

He twitched his wings, allowing the sand to roll off of him like drops of water. The red seeker glared at his surroundings, but then his look softened. The room was dimly lit by lights that gave off a deep red glow. They had chosen red for its synonymous meaning in Cybertronian to some kind of medical issue, just in case someone got through the hidden door they had placed they might think twice about their prolonged presence in the facility whose very form spelled "disease." He found himself grinning like a sparkling who just transformed successfully for the first time. He had genuinely thought that the place would be in ruins, but he was pleased (and proud) to find that it was pristine and functioning, just like the day he left it.

Starscream felt his memory banks pulling, wanting to relive that day. He suppressed the urge. _Not yet_. Skyfire was nothing to him, and he wasn't about to go and change that by delving into the memories of better days. However, there was a lurking thought that he did not suppress. Last time he was here, he thought of the creature a little differently. That was then, back when he was young and naive. Now he was a ruthless Air Commander and he _knew_ he could handle it.

He walked over to the console, noting that it still had enough solar power to continue at its function until after the suns died out (another billion millenia or so) and then for at least another couple thousand millenniums. Luckily, those blue giants put off a lot of power. Too bad it was now a wasted effort since he was about to remove the facility's reason for existence.

He turned and walked out of the main room and walked down the narrow corridor to the door that had about a million different languages all prominently displayed on the door. They basically all said the same thing. _Warning: Fatal disease of Techno-Organic origin. Any exposure could prove contraction. Vacate the area immediately. _Starscream had thought that up and he still felt it carried some verbose weight to it.

He punched in the code, getting plenty of errors claiming that there was no _way_ he'd want to get back in there. This place was specifically designed to keep one thing inside for the rest of eternity. Starscream and Skyfire, in their youthful prime, had never dreamed that that one of them would come back to release the most dangerous thing they had ever encountered in their travels.

The door reluctantly relented. It hissed, breaking the million-year old seal and slowly opened. Starscream took a step back and allowed the door an open path. He allowed his scanners to do a constant sweep, checking for any signs of _it_.

Not that he would be able to see it coming.

Starscream sighed. This was it. The point of no return. He could still turn back, go beg to Megatron for forgiveness and continue to be the slagging test dummy for the Decepticon army. Or he could walk in there and try to control that thing, and maybe it would all work out. He could be the leader of the Decepticons by Friday.

Faintly, Starscream heard scratching and a thump coming from the darkness in the doorway.

He leaned around the door and even with his perceptive scanners, he could not penetrate the darkness. He didn't need to know it was still there, because he had always known. He had not forgotten.

He flinched a little when he heard the scratching continue. Like a dog who has just found a porcupine, Starscream got closer to the door. He looked down into the darkness that lead to a series of stairs, all black metals, forged by his and Skyfire's hands so long ago. He could only see the first three steps, and they shivered with vibrations, indicating someone was at the bottom.

"Hello?" he scratched out. He sounded a lot less confident than he had hoped. The seeker silently cursed himself.

The scratching stopped.

"I said, 'hello.' Are you going to at least dignify me with a response?" Starscream folded his arms.

Nothing. It seemed as if the darkness was looking at him warily and with surprise. Almost as if it had forgotten that there _could_ be other beings out there.

Starscream resisted the urge to stamp his foot. "Well if you're not going to at least _talk_ to me, I don't have to-" He stopped, hearing clicking and the sound of hacking. Someone _was_ below.

"Sta-r-m?" came a voice colored by its disuse. After of millions of years, Starscream decided it was reasonable that the creature could not completely talk right away. He gave it the benefit of the doubt.

"Well, I see you have some social skills left. Entertained by all of the datapads we left you?" Starscream couldn't help adding a little bit of sarcasm. The thing down there probably read them many, _many_ times.

"I've completely memorized them," the thing said, his vocals much more even now. "Come on down and I'll prove it."

Starscream smirked. "What can't you come up here and tell me? What a shame. Must be that lack of energon. _How_ long have you been down there?"

The creature ignored him. "You know, I am rather surprised that it was _you_ who came to get me. From what I gathered, it was Skyfire who was not sold on the idea of my imprisonment. I would have bet credits on it being him that would rescue me."

"This isn't a rescue. It's a commissioning."

The creature paused. He knew the seeker couldn't see him, so he smiled malevolently. This couldn't have played out better in his wildest dreams. "I assume it has something to do with those insignias on your... wings."

Starscream could almost feel the optics grazing over his wings, and despite himself, he twitched them. That only made the mech below make a guttural noise that could be interpreted in many different ways, none of them exactly looking good for the seeker.

Still, not to lose control of the situation, Starscream put his hands on his hips. "There is a civil war going on."

The creature below took a stealthy, silent step. "Oh _really_. Tell me, has our dear _terra patris_ been blown to slag yet?" He wasn't really speaking in Latin, but in ancient Cybertronian, proving yet again that he had read those datapads many times. He hadn't been such a learned mech before. The creature posed to take another step while Starscream listened to the sound of his own voice.

"Close enough. It seems like often its not really about Cybertron anymore, but Megatron defeating Prime."

"And _which_ Prime would that-"

"HEY." Starscream had taken a step back and looked into the darkness suspiciously.

"What?" said the creature as innocently as he could muster.

Starscream still had his faceplate in a scowl. "Your vocals are getting closer. What are you doing?" He started to warm up his null-rays but didn't make any physical indication that he was doing so.

The creature rolled his optics in the dark. He was on the fifth step of about forty. "I was leaning against the steps for support. You don't happen to have any energon, do you? I'm simply parched."

Starscream tensed despite himself. "I promise I'll... get someone for you soon."

The creature chuckled darkly. Funny choice of words. Never saw the seeker as some kind of pimp. "_So_ we'll be leaving then?"

Starscream leaned against the doorframe. "If you agree to my terms." He examined his digits as if indifferent to the whole conversation.

"And what are they, _master_?" came the reply.

"First, I want to ensure my personal safety. As great as the... perks... of your condition might be, I don't want to become permanently infected."

The other mech snorted from the darkness. "There is no way in Pit you could stop me."

Starscream frowned and began to close the door. "And even if you get through this door, the front door is locked so you won't get out. Nice talking to you. Enjoy another millenia of _silence_."

"WAIT. Wait." He sighed.

Starscream stopped the door and reopened it. "Care to try again?"

The creature stifled a laugh. "All right, I think I can agree to that. But does that mean Skyfire is off limits?" he said jokingly. However, based on Starscream's reaction, maybe it wasn't such a good joke. Interesting. Nail on the head much?

"Skyfire and I are no longer... Longer." The seeker changed how he wanted to end that statement and then continued as if it hadn't come up. "Second, I want you to act under my authority. You have to do as I say, and in return I will not only let you out of here, but I will attempt to find a cure for you."

The creature snorted. "And how far is attempt?"

Starscream considered that for a moment. "I have developed some theories to your condition over the years, but I can't promise that they will definitely cure you."

"And if you fail to cure me?"

Starscream tried to stifle a smirk. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

The creature tilted his head slightly. There were some new mannerisms and definitely more of a like of sadism, but the Starscream that had engineered his prison was still there. He wondered what had become of Skyfire, and further, if the change in personality and the disappearance of the shuttle were connected.

"Right. Nothing I don't agree with."

Starscream nodded, looking slightly relieved. "Well, I'm going to throw a light down there so I can find you. I'll probably have to put you into stasis to get you fully repaired-"

"Oh, I can think of _better_ ways." Suddenly there was a rush of displaced air. Starscream froze and let his optics search the stairway, but he could still see nothing.

"Behind you," came a growl.

Starscream scrambled to turn around and nearly lost his footing at the top of the stairs. He steadied himself by splaying out his arms and legs in a spider-like fashion in the doorway. He locked optics with the creature, who had a rather amused expression on his faceplate.

Starscream tried to look dignified as he was cowering in the door, but he failed miserably. He stood slowly to full height and groaned inwardly as the creature was still nearly a helm taller than he. Starscream noticed that the creature was more mech-like than he had remembered, but then again, he didn't remember the mech moving that fast either.

He was gray like gunmetal, and had a dull sheen to him rather than a shiny polish. The mech-creature probably had some kind of car-alt, but Starscream didn't really remember. He was tall, lanky, and had a flashy smile that probably would win over many of the femmes. And he was dangerously close.

"Now, ugh, just wait a minute," the seeker stammered, hugging the wall as if it might yield some kind of escape. _Why_ had he put himself in this position, again?

"Oh dear _Starscream_. Let me show you how much I've missed you..." He started to lean in, his optics now a sickly yellow.

"S-stop, please!" Starscream screeched, waving his arms about in the most defensive way he could.

"Mmm, you said you would find me someone for me. And look. You did."

"You promised you wouldn't hurt me..." He said, barely above a whisper. His protests seemed to die on his lips. Secretly though, he had his nulls charged to full. He just needed a chance to aim them correctly which might prove difficult since the hallway they were in was so small.

"I promised I wouldn't infect you," his breath had become husky. He was hungry.

"What's the difference?" Starscream cried, leaning far enough back into the stairwell to hopefully aim his nulls. Any second now.

"Over time I discovered I can control whom I infect. I won't release the toxins into your system... just relieve you of some of your energon."

Starscream wrinkled his faceplate. "Keep your filthy, techno-organic fangs to yourself." He pulled back and fired a high blast at the mech. He missed, but he figured he had surprised the creature before he could react. He dashed past the surprised creature and ran down the hallway, desperately trying to get back to the front door to escape.

* * *

"Oh _come_ now Starscream, you'll be fine after a few cycles!" He ran after the seeker, grinning.

Starscream awoke on the floor of the console room with a terrible helmache. He was on his back, looking up at the dim red lights on the ceiling as they throbbed with the power it had. The seeker slowly looked around the room, when he saw in the corner _him_.

Oh. _Oh Primus_.

He sat up quickly, feeling along his neck like he was looking for an errant Insecticon. He found two puncture wounds that were innocuous enough that no one would notice. That was his first concern. Second, he quickly ran a diagnostic to make sure he wasn't infected.

Turns out, he wasn't. Just weak. Actually... very weak.

"Slag, how much did you take?" He croaked, massaging his neck.

The mech smiled, concentrating on the console rather than looking at the incapacitated seeker. "You'll live. You might be a little weaker for a while, but you'll live. Interesting energon you have, seeker. Tastes... exotic."

Starscream shivered but he tried to maintain control. "Yeah, well, that's the last of mine you'll get. There will be plenty of saccharine Autobots for you to feed on once we get back to Earth." Starscream tried to stand, but he did so too fast and felt his knees give out. He was headed for the floor before he was caught.

"There, there. Take it easy, my food- I mean friend."

Starscream glared irritably. "Very funny, Atmos." He shrugged the silver mech off, immediately going to the console for support. Atmos was just amused.

"I don't remember you being so... independent."

Starscream snorted. "Lots of things have changed. For one, I'm now the Air Commander of the Decepticon army." He stole a peek at the gray mech behind him. He smiled when he saw the surprise on his face.

"That makes you... second in command." Atmos folded his arms. That certainly was a new development. The Starscream he had known was a scientist/explorer through and through. In fact, he would argue that the seeker was rather anti-military back then. Maybe this was some kind of trick. "You're not a science officer?" He said suspiciously.

"When I finally got back to Cybertron, Megatron decided I would be best put to use in his army. So I joined him." That wasn't _quite_ how it happened. But he wasn't about to explain the whole trial to Atmos and how he was disgraced as a scientist...

"Things _have_ changed," Atmos said, leaning against the console. "And, uhm, when are we going to get out of here? I'm itching to get out."

Starscream turned around. "There's a sand storm outside, so we have to wait until that's blown over. Then we have to wait until _I'm_ strong enough to carry you since you probably don't have flight-"

"Actually, I do." He popped little winglets out of his back, demonstrating that in his alt he would indeed have flight.

Starscream staggered for a second. "You... you were a car-alt when I met you last."

Atmos smiled wickedly. "And now I am a hybrid. Techno-organics can change you know."

Starscream narrowed his optics. "Not on command."

Atmos shrugged. "Listen, I'm still hungry. I can't be sated for long, and I had to exhibit all of my self-control not to suck you dry." His fangs glittered a little in the dim light for added effect.

The seeker crossed his arms. "We're not going anywhere until you explain some things." He glared at Atmos. "Did you just absorb part of my make, so now you have flight?"

Atmos sighed. He really, _really_ just wanted to get out. But Starscream insisted on being difficult. The seeker was asking far too many questions and it was going to cost him. "Fine, but the longer we wait, _Air Commander_, the more energon I'm going to have to drink." He bared his fangs a little for added emphasis. Starscream tensed, feeling the threat pulse in his own neck. "Because I didn't infect you, I was able to analyze your energon and the little bits of data that are in it that make it _yours_. And because I'm now Techno-organic, I can manipulate myself into creating certain parts of my body change. It's nothing nefarious, Starscream." He took on a conspiratorial grin, knowing it could pass for ineffable innocence.

"When's the storm going to be over?" he said, shifting his weight impatiently.

Starscream was still glaring but seemed appeased. For the moment. "The sensors say about another cycle or so."

Atmos sighed exasperatedly. "I'm gonna get hungry again soon."

Starscream leveled his null-rays at Atmos at full charge. "Don't even think about it. You've waited millenia to get fed; you can wait a fragging few megacycles."

Atmos perked up. "Is this 'Earth' that close?" He twitched his winglets with anticipation.

Starscream saw the action and was slightly disturbed. That was something _he_ would do. "Uh... No. No, it's lightyears away, but in your absence, our technology has created 'space bridges.' They'll cut the trip dramatically shorter."

Atmos smiled. "Wonders untold."

Starscream said nothing as he absentmindedly felt his neck for the puncture marks.

"Is it time to go? Is it? Isitisit?"

Starscream groaned, allowing his 'companion' to hear his irritation. "Will you shut up already? The sensors said it has slowed down-"

"So let's go!"

"-but it's not completely done yet. I refuse to step out there when there is even an iota of sand swirling. Plus, aren't you forgetting one important de-"

"Starscream. I am going to slagging pull your pretty little head off of your neck if you don't open that door." He sounded neutral, but he was anything but. Starscream could almost feel an echo radiating off of that statement that was ancient and _wrong_. He had felt it earlier, but it wasn't nearly as palpable. He took a step back.

"...Alright Atmos. I'm opening the door."

He went to the keypad and typed in the key, as he was pushed roughly aside as the door lurched open. The seeker was about to protest when the hybrid blurred out into the storm, moving faster than Starscream could see.

"Atmos! Come back! You don't und-" Starscream called, but his voice was cut off by the swirling vortex of sand and wind.

Atmost could _taste_ the openness. The sky was open above him, currently enraptured by swirling sands, but still he could feel it. It was so much better than that prison he had been in. Oh how much better it was. He spun, slowly, nearly giddy with happiness.

Then he felt a burn. It was small at first; in fact, he thought he might have imagined it. But then he noticed the sands were thinning, and in their place was innocent rays of sunshine.

And it _hurt_.

"Atmos, get back in here!" he could hear the hoarse color to Starscream's voice, as if he had been shouting the whole time. He thought in the back of his mind that there might be a touch of concern to that yell.

Starscream was leaning heavily on the sides of the door, but he decided to try and pull Atmos back in by the nape of his neck if he had to. The seeker started stomping out into the dying storm, putting his servo up to block the sand from his faceplate. "You idiot! Your condition-"

Starscream stopped when he saw Atmos disappear out of the abating sands. Then there was movement behind him, and he turned, looking out of the rising heat into the shady darkness of the facility. There was Atmos, breathing heavily like he had just run a marathon in100x gravity.

Starscream stalked back in, closing the door behind him. "Great. Just great. Now we both have to wait until we have recovered because of your foolishness."

Atmos sat down heavily. He examined his arm and noticed morbidly that it had begun to rust heavily. In fact, much of his left arm was so corroded it was almost unusable. _Frag, that was close_. Starscream continued to pratter on about his foolishness. In the time they were apart, the seeker had picked up an annoying ability to _whine_. "Shut up, Starscream. The sunlight slipped my mind."

"...Slipped your mind."

Atmos was trying his best to ignore the incredulous seeker beside him, but he was finding it was hard to do. He could smell the energon still pulsing through Starscream's system, and he needed more. His body especially craved the energon because of the damage he had sustained from the sun just moments ago. And based on how much of a fuss the seeker was making... maybe he had enough energy to sustain another bite.

He decided then. Now he got to enjoy how much Starscream was going to resist.

"How could it slip your mind?" Starscream had taken a seat now too. He was looking at the corroded patches on Atmos's frame with mild curiosity.

"I was only thinking of my inane claustrophobia that I had suddenly developed. I needed to get _out_. But when I was fantasizing about gallivanting outside all those vorns below, I had forgotten about that little part of my make-up. You forget that it wasn't long after I became this way that you and Skyfire interred me here."

Starscream looked at him with searching optics. He seemed to be debating whether or not the mention of Skyfire had intended to wound him or not. Atmos could still see the endearing naivete on Starscream that had led to their first meeting all those years ago.

Starscream shrugged. "Back then, we couldn't control you. You threatened to go back to Cybertron and infect the entire planet. So even if we knew you could have this much control, we couldn't risk it. So sorry we couldn't give you the chance to try out your new limitations." The hard edge was back to his voice.

Atmos nodded. "I always understood why you did what you did. That doesn't mean I liked it, or have forgiven you."

"I'm not interested in forgiveness, you half-breed. I only want results."

"Mmmhmm."

"It's been far too long that I have been under _his_ rule and with your help I will finally be able to accomplish what I have failed at every time. That slagger will have no idea what hit him. What are you doing?" he said, eying the mech who was leaning into him.

"Ah. Well." Atmos showed him his arms like it was self-explanatory.

Starscream tried to scramble away, but Atmos grabbed his pede an pulled him up. "You _know _I can't self-repair. I have to use other mech's energon to heal myself."

"But I _already gave _you plenty! Primus, please don't do that again..." Starscream had begun to whine and ended by grasping his neck as if it could stop the mech.

"I just need a little this time. It'll probably knock you out, but by the time you wake up, I'll have built some armor that will allow me to go outside. The binary suns never set, do they?"

Starscream tried to kick Atmos away, but the hybrid held him still. "How do I know you won't just kill me and leave the planet?"

"Starscream," he said scoldingly. "I _repay_ favors due to me."

Starscream sighed. "And you don't know where the space bridges are." Atmos smiled. Starscream tensed even more.

"Now if you tense, it will just hurt more. At least I think. To be honest, you're only the third mech I've drunk from so I'm actually not quite sure. Let's do a little experiment." He bared two prominent fangs and pulled Starscream's servo off of his sore neck. He bit, _hard._

Starscream gasped and tried to flail out of the grip of his captor, but he couldn't. In fact, struggling seemed to make Atmos clench harder on his neck. He clawed at the hybrid's face, he kicked, he tried screaming, but nothing he did could get the mech off of him. Starscream began to panic when he felt himself weakening, and system warnings told him that there was enough pain readings to send him temporarily offline. Also, he had some kind of fuel leak that should be patched soon.

He groaned and his clawing became less directed and less frantic. Starscream tried one last kick, and then lost the fight completely. "Slag-gher..." he said, before his optics fluttered and then went dark. He had passed out.

Atmos forced himself to stop when he noticed that all of his wounds were healed. As soon as the energon flowed through his veins, he could feel the repair of the damage the suns had done to him. He gently put the seeker down, now looking to the materials he had to work with. Armor that could protect him would take a normal mech megacycles to complete, but luckily he had the power of his "disease" to help him.

Any sun that put out UV light corroded his techno-organic shell, causing pain and presumably death upon too much exposure. When he had first contracted the "disease," Starscream and Skyfire had arrived to investigate. They had discovered that the same cells that gave him increased speed and strength also gave him an insatiable urge to bite and drink energon from Cybertronians and this strange aversion to sunlight. To Atmos, it had seemed like a fair trade, and he had started to make his way back to Cybertron.

Starscream and Skyfire however felt responsible for helping him, and thus subsequently releasing him back on their home world. They narrowly avoided becoming infected themselves, but they had managed to trap Atmos, and build the facility and get him entrapped there.

Atmos tore off panels of metal and started to hew them into a suit that he could wear. It would make him massive, but then he might be able to somehow get back to Cybertron to accomplish what he had originally set out to do. He looked over at the seeker.

Starscream had no idea what he had just unleashed.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers . Hope you enjoy this nice little update.

* * *

When Starscream woke, this time he could not move. He barely had the energy to open his optics, but he knew he had to make sure Atmos was still there. He looked around the room, noticing that the metal was all stripped in places like someone had scratched the paint off of a wall.

And there was Atmos, covered in the missing metal.

Starscream couldn't completely think straight for the lack of energon, but something was really not right. The armor that Atmos was wearing looked like it had taken weeks to create: it was polished black, and fit him perfectly. It even looked like it could bend with him into his transformation mode so that he would not be without protection in his alt.

"Ah, you've awakened."

Starscream grimaced. "Please don't do that again," he said angrily. But it came off very weak.

Atmos opened the visor on his armor. His once yellow optics were now a nice, lush red. "Ooh, sorry. I think I took a little more than might have been comfortable for you."

Starscream was too tired to retort. "I need to get energon..." he tried to get up, but opted for just laying there, silently fuming that he was going to have to be carried.

"I can get you some, but I have to know which way we are going."

Starscream swallowed. This was it. Once he told Atmos where a bridge was, the hybrid could leave him. He was so weak, he'd be stuck like this until he burned off his remaining fuel and then he would probably go offline permanently. Atmos could see the indecision.

"I think you are going to have to start trusting me, Starscream." He quietly picked the seeker up and grinned before he put the visor back down.

Starscream pinged the coordinates and suddenly they were off.

* * *

It was quiet in the morning near the power plant. The sun hadn't broken the horizon yet, but the gray cast sky warned that it was coming. Starscream was sitting on the ground connecting cables, while Atmos took in everything around him.

"So the organic growths-"

"_Trees_," Starscream said.

"Right. These _trees_ absorb the carbon dioxide and then expel oxygen? And then all all forms of life-"

"_Most_. Not all."

"They breathe in that oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. What a fragile system." He stretched noticing how the cool, humid air felt good against his frame. Despite its fragility, he could get used to this exotic planet.

"Alright, connect those cables over there so we can convert the power into energon." Atmos did what he was told and his optics grew wide with wonder as energon began to pool out of a hose Starscream had created. The seeker filled cubes he brought out from subspace, and drank a few of them hungrily.

"So is this what makes you taste so good? This Earth created energon?"

Starscream wiped some energon off of his face with the back of his servo. He gave a withering look to Atmos. "How am I supposed to know? This energon, no matter its source, is identical in compounds to that on Cybertron. Hence why Megatron is so keen to harness it."

Atmos grinned. "Then it must be _you_ that makes it so good."

Starscream sighed, rolling his optics. "Would you stop it? You said it yourself, you haven't had a drink in millenia; I'm just the first feast after a famine. I'm sure you'll enjoy drinking the Autobots."

"Mmm. A legion of hybrid Autobots. Can you imagine the consequences?"

Starscream nearly choked on his energon. "You're not going to _infect_ them, just drain them dry."

"I don't remember that being part of the deal."

Starscream stood quickly pointing a digit at Atmos. "You _will not_. Do you realize you'd be helping them? They could overpower us with their strength and speed in a matter of cycles!"

"Kliks, really. And who says I want to help the Decepticons anyway?"

Starscream nearly screamed in frustration. "You _promised_ you would help me take the Decepticons!"

Atmos laughed. "Alright, alright. Calm down, seeker, I was only joking. It's really easy to get you worked up. How can you operate so wound up like that all of the time?"

The seeker turned on his pede, sulking. He was _not_ to be made a fool of. Primus knows that happened enough with his own faction, so it wasn't about to occur with his own new-forged alliance. "So here is the plan. I present you to Megatron as a gift to the Decepticon ranks. You need to be completely subservient to him and he'll probably give you some kind of test of dedication or something. Just do it."

"But not _too_ well." He blurred out of sight then reappeared behind Starscream.

Starscream threw a glare at the hybrid. "_Try_ to conceal your eccentricities, Atmos. If you don't, I'll abandon my studies on how to change you back because the whole plan will have been shot to the pit."

That wiped Atmos's smile away. "Very well. And what am I to feed on?"

"Try to steal a lone Autobot when you get the chance. You can drain him dry if you want; it doesn't really matter."

"Well then let's go." Atmos blurred and was suddenly in his armor.

Starscream felt unnerved by the hybrid, but he stifled his concerns for the taste of victory close at hand.

They transformed and headed for the Decepticon base.

* * *

"I already have soldiers, Starscream. And the last time you brought someone from your past, it didn't work out too well."

Starscream folded his arms angrily. It should not be this hard; Megatron seemed to want to stymie him at every turn. _Why did he have to have such a fragging good instinct_? _Now, of all times?_

He glanced at Atmos who for his part was doing a good job at appearing confused and indifferent.

"I don't understand. I'm doing _you _a favor by bringing more possible converts to your cause-"

"Spare me, Starscream. You brought him for your _own_ benefit, I just have to figure out what it is."

It was at this time that Soundwave decided to add his two cents.

"Starscream: Explain relation to mech."

"I don't answer to you."

"No, now I'm curious _Air Commander_. How did you come across him?"

Starscream sighed like this was wasting his time. "I knew him before the war, and that he had disappeared on a planet. You happen to exile me right next to it, and since my navigation was shot, I decided to check up him and see if he was still functioning. He had been in stasis all these years..."

Atmos nodded to add clout, but secretly he was extremely surprised. He and Starscream had not rehearsed this, but the seeker seemed to have the story completely set. He managed to tell just enough truth to make it not quite a lie. Starscream really had picked up a new skill set.

"So you brought him to conspire against me; is that it?" Megatron's raspy voice cut Atmos out of his reverie.

"_No_, Megatron. He happens to have some scientific knowledge that I could have an intelligent conversation with, other than the rest of you morons," the seeker was careful to refer to the rest of the room, not including Megatron in the sweep of his hand, "but I would hardly call us friends let along conspirators."

Megatron trained his gaze to Atmos then. "That's an interesting model of armor you have. What was your primary function?"

"I was originally a dock worker on Cybertron, hence the build. The sorry state of my stasis pod caused some damage to my frame, so I made this armor to conceal the disfiguration."

"So Starscream woke you up, and then you made the armor? In a matter of megacycles?"

Atmos smiled thinly. Megatron was just as suspicious as Starscream, if not more shrewd. "Starscream helped of course."

The seeker smiled witheringly. Hilarious joke, since it was _his _energon that had fueled the hybrid in the making of the armor.

Megatron narrowed his optics then continued. "Very well then. Would you care to prove your worth in two tests?"

Atmos nodded. "Anything you ask Lord Megatron."

"Tear off his wing."

"Which one?"

"Surprise me."

"Gladly."

He walked over to Starscream who was a second slow on the uptake. "Wait a second- AGAHHH!" The seeker tried to swipe at Atmos but the hybrid had stepped away, holding the piece of metal that Starscream had repaired his wing with.

"Excellent. Starscream, get that fixed."

The seeker angrily grabbed the wing from Atmos and began to stalk off, dripping energon on everything. Atmos was having some trouble trying not to help the seeker stop the flow.

"Atmos, is it? Welcome to the Decepticon army." An insignia appeared on Atmos' chest. How _did_ that work anyway, Atmos wondered. "Your second test will be against Autobots later. It's easy to tear into Starscream, but we'll see how you do against mechs who are firing back. Do you have weapons?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. I'll let Soundwave show you around."

* * *

Starscream pouted in the med bay as the Constructicons made every effort to work on something other than him. He had stopped yelling at them to drop everything and fix him when they threatened to remove his other wing and reassamble him into a car-alt. Lamborghini to be exact. There would be two matches on the Autobot side, actually...

"Alright, Screamer, we got time to work on you now."

"Oh _thank_ you for taking time out of your _busy_ scheduling. It's not like I wasn't bleeding everywhere or anything."

"Yeah, we'll have to get someone to clean that. Can't have your filthy mess all over our med bay." Hook said. Starscream rolled his eyes because the Constructicon was being serious, not sarcastic.

They started to work on his wing, taking pains to jab him in any way they could. Starscream, for his part, was criticizing how they were holding their welding instruments. Hook had half a mind to anesthetize the seeker so they could work in peace, when he noticed something on Starscream's neck.

"What'd you do, walk into a giant plug with spikes on it? Let me see that." He tilted Starscream's head away from him so that he could get a good look. "There are some weird scratches here."

Starscream pulled away, putting his hand to his neck. "Would you leave that alone? That has nothing to do with my wing."

"Awfully defensive, Starscream."

"Knowing your repair job, you'll probably try to replace my neck. And then you'll just have to replace my helm. And the 'repairs' will never stop."

"What'd he say?" one of them said, pinching a particularly sensitive nerve on Starscream's exposed back plating.

Starscream hissed, and the others laughed. "If you _slag heaps_ are done-"

"Location: Med bay. Repairs accomplished by Constructicons."

Soundwave and Atmos stood in the doorway. The hybrid started laughing when he saw Starscream so compromised. He also was trying not to breathe in case he lost it with Starscream's energon everywhere. Luckily, one of the Constructicons was using bleach to clean up the mess, but it wasn't completely masking the smell.

Soundwave turned around to walk out. "Atmos: Report for Autobot mission tomorrow, 0500 hours." The communications officer walked out of the room, leaving the snickering Constructicons and bristling Air Commander behind. Atmos leaned against the doorway, still smirking.

"What do _you_ want, slagger?"

Atmos opened his hands in a symbol for peace. "You did say to do _anything_ he says."

Starscream hissed again as the Constructicons replaced his back plating. "There you go, Air Commander. A perfect repair if I say so myself."

Starscream hopped off the repair berth, ignoring the Constructicons completely. "I should have left you where I found you," Starscream said angrily. He twitched his wings to make sure they really were functional and then strode out of the room toward the wash racks to clean off the energon stains.

Atmos followed. "Come on, Screamer, I had to make it look like we weren't working-"

"WHAT did you just call me?" Starscream had stopped in his tracks and was trembling with rage.

"I heard one of the Constructicons call you that; I thought it was your nickname."

Starscream scowled. "It is _not _my nickname, though many continue to call me that. And I certainly don't allow _new recruits_ to call me thus." Anyone looking at the exchange might have laughed seeing the seeker threatening the mech that was so much taller than he.

Atmos shrugged. "Very well, _Air Commander_. I will respect those wishes in the future."

Starscream didn't look convinced, but continued to walk down the hallway. Atmos followed behind, now silent. The seeker was getting annoying, but he was still necessary if Atmos was going to complete his plan.

He had been grateful that he had finally been released, even if it was for completely selfish ends. The seeker still had no idea that he planned to turn all of the Cybertronians on Earth into hybrids like himself, and then get back to Cybertron to complete the conversion there. It wasn't as if he held animosity towards his former race; though no love was lost on them since Starscream and Skyfire had imprisoned him for so long.

But it was completely biological. He could feel every one of his cells screaming out to infect, and he was damned if he didn't want to quiet those screams he had heard for millenia. Still, he tried to instill calm. He had not waited all this time to lose his chance.

Still, Starscream was going to prove to be a problem. The seeker was far too smart, and knew him for what he was. And even when he was a naïve scientist, he had managed to incapacitate him and drag him to a prison. Who knows what tricks the seeker could pull now that he had been trained at the Cybertronian academy?

The Air Commander walked into the wash racks, and stepped into one of the stalls for one of the bigger mechs. He always did this in part because he felt he was worth the extra room and part of him always liked to inconvenience others. The water came out of a spout on top, and he used some solvent to scrub the energon off of him.

He gave a furtive glance to Atmos who was leaning against the wall opposite him, smiling. The seeker twitched an eyebrow in irritation; he was not here to give a _show_. "What do _you_ want?" he whined.

Atmos grinned, his most insufferable habit, Starscream thought. "I'm hungry again."

Starscream paused his washing for a millisecond. His neck still hurt a lot from last time. "You just ate. You can wait until tomorrow; we'll get you a nice little Autobot you can drink to your spark's content."

Atmos shook his head. "I can't wait that long. Your energon," he blurred and then reappeared right outside of Starscream's stall, "is calling to me." He was staring down at the swirling, congealed energon that ran down the drain. Starscream had flinched to the corner of the stall, but noticed the hybrid's attention was diverted.

He pulled up his null-rays and fired a blast straight into Atmos' spark chamber. The hybrid fell to the ground, stunned into stasis. Starscream smirked as he lowered his arm and he kicked the hybrid for good measure. "I don't know if your audios are offlined as well," he said turning off the water. "But you should know that I'm not a free meal you can keep coming back to." He grabbed a microfiber towel off of a rack and started to clean off the water drops off of his chassis and arms.

Once he was satisfied that he was dry and clean, he picked up Atmos' feet and started to drag him out of the wash racks and into the corridor.

He got far too many waggling eyebrows for his taste, but he ignored them, taking a stiff Atmos to a cargo bay in the back of the base.

There, he found a chair and some chains that he used to prop the hybrid up and tie him up. He took extra care to make sure the chains were secure, and he couldn't help remembering the last time he tried to seal Atmos up. For all his care that time, he was the one who had undone all of his work.

He frowned and continued to work on Atmos' bonds. It didn't matter if Atmos was a little hard to handle; by definition, the hybrid was not typical and therefore, logically, unpredictable. And Starscream took that into account by keeping his plan flexible. Part of that plan included taking him out with a null-ray in case he proved surly again.

He _had_ to protect his strength in any way possible. If someone ever figured out that he was "under the weather" they might not hesitate to finish the job, or, at the very least, figure out there was something wrong with this Atmos character. Then Starscream was back to square one.

The seeker stepped back and appraised his handiwork. He wished he had had a welder, but he wasn't always prone to carry one around. He looked at the stunned hybrid, and he felt a wash of fear take his spark for a moment. It was if his own internal systems recognized the danger held in this creature, this _abomination_, but his CPU kept rationalizing it away.

For a swift moment, Starscream felt guilty for releasing this thing. He had been so sure years ago that keeping him locked away was the best course of action, yet almost on impulse, he had released the thing in order to further his own ambition. What would happen if the thing bettered him?

He glared for a moment and walked out. Starscream was not usually plagued with these thoughts of self doubt, and he was already unnerved enough by the hybrid's presence alone. He stood more upright as he walked. He was _Starscream_. If the whole universe blew up, he'd at least rule the rubble. That was his right.

* * *

Starscream onlined his optics the next morning. As he got up, he stretched his stiff wings, still sore from the repair the previous day. It always promised to be a good day when the Autobots needed shooting.

He walked over to his monitor and switched it on. Surprisingly, the day kept getting better when he looked at both their instruments and those of the fleshlings: the weather was going to be clear over their perceived battle site with no precipitation predicted.

Starscream ambled up and out of his room, making sure he made plenty of noise entering the adjoining room that his wingmates slept in. Thundercracker grunted at the intrusion, attempting to get at least one more ounce of sleep. Skywarp didn't make any noise at all, demonstrating his annoying ability to sleep through anything.

Starscream wrinkled his faceplate. Things were back to normal, but his wingmates seemed to have barely missed him in his absence.

"Get up you lazy oafs. We have Autobots to offline."

Thundercracker onlined his optics, glaring at his Air Commander. "Back so soon?" The blue seeker slowly began to get up, rubbing his optics.

Starscream glared right on back. "Yes. I had to weld my own wing and infiltrate a million year old facility, but _yes._ I'm back."

"Hey 'Warp, you gonna greet our glorious Air Commander?" Thundercracker asked, stretching.

Skywarp groaned but continued to sleep. Starscream looked like he was about to strangle him, but Thundercracker intervened. "I'll get him up. You go plot something."

Starscream snorted and left, deciding he should check on his prisoner.

But when he arrived, the chains had been broken. They lay scattered on the floor, showing that they had been pulled apart, not slipped off or cut off. Pieces lay everywhere.

Starscream tried not to panic, but his mind was running in several directions at once. First, he spun around checking the perimeter: check. No ambush. Second, he checked his systems for the umpteenth time that he had not been infected and was just waiting in the small grace period before he too became a disgusting hybrid.

Third, he ran out of the cargo hold, heading for his trinemates' room. It was just a hunch, but he was pretty sure. He barged in to their room, as Thundercracker was leaning over Skywarp, starting to look worried.

"I-I was just about to com you-" The blue seeker looked genuinely worried. How quaint.

"Get out of the way," Starscream said, pushing the blue one out of the way. He noticed Skywarp was awake, but looked as if he been awake for vorns.

"I don't feel so good," he said in a pathetic whisper.

Starscream turned his wingmates' head, gently, to find the two small puncture wounds on his main energon line in his neck. He pretended like he was just testing his neck strength and turned his head the other way. He looked at Thundercracker. "He needs energon; somehow he became deenergized over the night. Probably some kind of glitch. I'll do a diagnostic when I get back from the mission."

"Are we off it then?"

"Well _he's_ not killing any Autobots soon, and I refuse to work with part of a trine. I'd rather work alone."

Thundercracker made to protest that he had done so plenty of times, but decided against it. The blue seeker had discovered long ago that much of what Starscream said was to convince himself of it, rather than try to get anyone else to believe it.

Starscream had turned to go, when he added one more thing. "Also, make sure you lock the doors at night."


End file.
